Laughing Back at Empire

The Grassroots Activism of The Asianadian Magazine, 1978–1985

Angie Wong

• Publisher: University of Manitoba Press
• Year: 2023
• Print ISBN: 9781772840292
• eBook ISBN: 9781772840315
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: North American History
• Index: Social Sciences

Asian Canadian activism, resistance, and art of the 1970s and 80s

Laughing Back at Empire is a ground-breaking examination of The Asianadian, one of Canada's first anti-racist, anti- sexist, and anti-homophobic magazines. Over the course of its seven-year run, the small but mighty magazine led a nation-wide dialogue for all Canadians on the struggles and social issues that concerned Asians in Canada.

The Asianadian established a national platform for then-emerging Asian Canadian writers, artists, musicians, activists, and scholars like Sky Lee, Jim Wong-Chu, Joy Kogawa, Himani Bannerji, and Paul Yee. Columns like "On the Firing Line" and the "Dubious Achievement Awards" provided space to laugh back at the embarrassing concoction of Orientalist stereotypes in the media and to critique inconsistencies and superficialities within Canada's newfound multicultural image.

Situating the story of The Asianadian within the history of Canada, Angie Wong celebrates and builds on the work of its creators from the Asianadian Resource Workshop. Extensive interview material with the co-founding members, editors, volunteers, readers, and contributors captures their dedication and spirit of anti-racist collectivism.

Wong's analysis helps to dismantle cultural assumptions that have relegated Asian Canadian history, contributions, and injustices to the periphery of Canadian experience and identity. On the heels of the COVID-19 pandemic and a resurgence of anti-Asian racism, Laughing Back at Empire amplifies the voices that speak, shout, and laugh together at empire's self-congratulatory and exclusionary narratives.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Contents
• Foreword by Cheuk Kwan
• Found Poem by Terry Watada
• Introduction. Then and Now: The Asianadian and the Radical Spirit of Community Care
• Chapter 1. “Yellow History Is Big”
• Chapter 2. The First of Its Kind: The Asianadian and the Asianadian Resource Workshop
• Chapter 3. Laughing at the Dubious Nation: Canada on the Firing Line
• Chapter 4. Hybridity and Resistance in Theory and Practice: Coalition Building, Silence Breaking, Turns and Returns to History
• Conclusion. Gum San Sits on the Turtle’s Back: Writing for Posterity and the Future of the Movement
• Acknowledgements
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index