Asian American Women: From the Cold War to the Movement of the 60s

Speaker: Mary Uyematsu Kao (UCLA)

Mary Uyematsu Kao will present her black-and-white photographs from the Asian American Movement of the 1970s and talk about the Asian American Baby Boomer Generation of activist women. From the Cold War politics promoting Asian women to be docile, submissive, and exotic, as well as model minorities—to breaking those stereotypes by joining the Asian American Movement—Kao will recount some of the first-hand experiences of Sansei women from her oral history research and her own experience. Never before publically seen photographs from New York Chinatown’s struggle for the hiring of Asian American construction workers at Confucius Plaza, and the struggle for Asian American Studies at CCNY will be a special highlight.