Skip to content
H.M.A. Leow

H.M.A. Leow

Rooted in postcolonial Southeast Asia, H.M.A. Leow writes from the crossings of cultures and stories. She has a scholarly background in multi-ethnic US American history and literature, with a career bridging the newsroom and the classroom. Her art and research center on gender, ethnicity, and narrative, but her interests are curious and catholic.

Language & Literature

The Blu’s Hanging Controversy

Some have argued that the 1997 novel Blu's Hanging perpetuates East Asian racism against Filipinos while undermining criticism through violent sexuality.
Lee Kwong family photo, ca. 1907. Standing (l.-r.): Aurelia, Percy, Carmen, and Luisa. Seated (l.-r. ): Concepcion, Lai Ngan, Teresa, Frank, Lee Kwong, and Marian.
Politics & History

From Bond Maid to Pioneering Chinese Businesswoman

Raised as a servant girl, Lai Ngan grew up to become a cigar maker, own a boarding house, and run grocery stores in the American Southwest.
Japanese "picture brides" being processed after arriving at Angel Island, California, c. 1910
Politics & History

Japanese American Wives and the Sex Industry

Japanese American immigrant wives in the American West attempted to improve their living conditions through sex work.
A view of the Raffles Hotel, Singapore, between 1920 and 1939
Education & Society

“Microcosms of Empire” in the Colonial Grand Hotel

While Singapore's iconic Raffles Hotel may be marketed as a tranquil throwback to a bygone age, it also reveals the complicated truths of imperialism.
From the cover of American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang, 2006
Arts & Culture

The Caricature Who Couldn’t Appear on American Born Chinese

The television adaptation of Gene Luen Yang's graphic novel called for significant changes to the character of Chin-Kee.
A black and white newspaper advertisement titled The Abortion Handbook. Lana Clarke Phelan and Patricia Maginnis are names listed below the title.
Health

When San Francisco Feminists Rated Mexican Abortions

The California activists played the role of a health agency to ensure women received safe and competent health care in Mexican clinics.
Arts & Culture

The Tricky Sentimentality of Lan Cao’s Monkey Bridge

The Vietnamese American literary classic undermines the readers’ expectations of a redemptive narrative of immigration and memory.
The food court in Lion Plaza, San Jose, CA
Politics & History

The Asian American History of Silicon Valley Shopping Malls

Shopping centers in East San Jose that originally served working-class immigrants have been transformed by the influx of transnational tech professionals.
The annual Barrio Fiesta (Pilipino American Cultural Night) is an event that showcases the talents of the Filipino student community at USF through skit, dance, and music.
Education & Society

Traditional Dance in the Limelight at Pilipino Culture Night

Traditional dance offers Filipino Americans a sense of pride and legitimacy while allowing them to cherish different aspects of this heritage practice.
The Book of Salt by Monique Truong
Arts & Culture

Monique Truong’s The Book of Salt

Centered on the Stein-Toklas household and written from the point of view of their gay Vietnamese cook, Binh, this novel tells a story of converging queer diasporas.
The interior of St Anne's Church, Bukit Mertajam, Penang
Education & Society

A Colorful Mix of Cultures at One Malaysian Catholic Shrine

Different—and sometimes competing—uses of sacred space is par for the course at the Church of St Anne in Penang’s Bukit Mertajam.
The Japanese section of the Food Products Building at the 1915 World's Fair in San Francisco
Education & Society

Sanitizing Foreign Food at the World’s Fair

At the 1915 San Francisco Panama-Pacific International Exposition, “food purity” was shorthand for food manufactured without the help of a racially diverse labor force.
An Americanization Campaign image
U.S. History

Reading Between the Lines of an “Americanization” Campaign

Manuals used to teach “American” ways of homemaking in California c. 1915–1920 offer a rare opportunity to hear the voices of Mexican immigrant women.
A cartoon of a woman's hand holding a microphone
Arts & Culture

Honey Cocaine’s Unexpected Cambodian Canadian Life Story

The Toronto rapper embraces a patois-inflected “bad gal” image to tell a deeply personal story about historical violence.
Ben Thanh Market in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Education & Society

Viêt Kiêu Find a “Home for Now” in Ho Chi Minh City

A growing number of overseas Vietnamese, or Viêt Kiêu, call Ho Chi Minh City home. Why are so many emigrants and their children returning to Vietnam?
"Top Chef" winner Hung Huynh begins his stint as executive chef at Solo in the Sony building on March 10, 2008 in New York City.
Arts & Culture

Should We Expect TV Chefs to Serve “Me on a Plate”?

Asian Americans navigate entrenched attitudes and expectations when it comes to their relationship with food—even while competing on Top Chef.
Immigration Station on Angel Island, San Francisco, California
Arts & Culture

Lost in Translation: Ezra Pound’s Imagism and the Angel Island Poets

As Pound was making a splash with “translations” of Chinese poetry, immigrants from China were etching poems of despair into the walls of a detention facility.
Jade Snow Wong beside the cover of her book, Fifth Chinese Daughter
Politics & History

Jade Snow Wong’s Cold War World Tour

In 1953, the US Department of State sent ceramicist and author Constance Wong—known professionally as Jade Snow Wong—on a four-month goodwill tour of Asia.
Table top view of Indian food on table.
Education & Society

How do South Asian Americans Remember Home Cooking?

Culinary discourse—whether in fiction, memoir, or cookbook—sets in motion an extended discussion about food, nostalgia, and national identity
Two Peranakan women at a tin factory in Pulau Singkep, Riau Islands.
Politics & History

Keeping the Baba-Nyonya Culture of Penang Alive

Identity consciousness among Malaysian Chinese Peranakans is on the rise as the Babas and Nyonyas seek to celebrate and preserve their unique heritage.
The covers of Oscar Hijuelos’s The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love (1989), Edwidge Danticat’s The Dew Breaker (2004), and Junot Díaz’s The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (2007).
Arts & Culture

American Immigrant Literature Gets an Update

Despite the historical gulf between canonical and recent immigrant writing, one constant is the mark that new immigrant artists leave on US literature.

Support JSTOR Daily

Help us keep publishing stories that provide scholarly context to the news.