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This study examines the multifaceted images of Asian-Americans illustrated in popular print magazines, i.e., Life, New York Times, and Saturday Evening Post in 1945 to 1966. Specifically, the study asks, what were the characteristics of the "model minority" group that render them the "model" of other ethnic groups? Who created these images, from what sources, and for what purposes? More importantly, how can educators better understand issues facing Asian-American students, given a historicized concept of "model minority"? Through a detailed analysis of the traits, values, and beliefs of Chinese- and Japanese-Americans portrayed by popular print magazines, this study argues such traits serve the war of ideology between the United States and the Soviet block in postwar era. In other words, the model minority discourse includes Asian- Americans in the post war America citizenry landscape due to their apparent embrace of values such as democracy and freedom, while at the same time, excludes Asian- Americans through the emphasis on values associated with Asian cultures. As such, attributing the "model minority" image to Asian-Americans in contemporary America denies us critical lens through which to examine, analyze, and interpret the dilemmas and issues Asian-Americans face today. The study then concludes with suggestions for educators to demystify the "model minority" images in a globalized era. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An essay is presented in which the author discusses Asian American comedian Margaret Cho in terms of the history of Asian Americans in theater culture and Asian identity, focusing on her 1999 touring one-woman show and memoir "I'm the One That I Want." Cho's sitcom "All-American Girl," sexism and racism in the entertainment industry, and the social aspects of immigration are discussed, as well as Cho's performance of characters and phenomenology.

The article analyzes the racial ideologies attributed to Asian Americans and Pacific Islander Americans in prime-time television programs, focusing on how they are stereotyped and marginalized. A history of anti-Asian racism in the United States is presented. Efforts to instill an anti-racism ideology during the Post-Civil Rights era are discussed. Methods used by mass media to frame racist ideologies are reviewed. Various Asian American and Pacific Islander American characters on network television programs are mentioned.

This article examines through a cultural studies perspective the motion pictures included in the Charlie Chan series and contrasted it with the experimental 1982 motion picture Chan Is Missing, a text which reverses the Asian stereotypes perpetuated by the Chan character. An examination of these texts should help reveal the cultural logics that have historically structured the voyeur's work in society. This analysis will bring race and ethnic relationships more directly into an interactionist-based cultural studies project. While the Oriental sleuth was virtually ignored in silent film the Chan movie Behind That Curtain became a staple of the Hollywood screen. To study this figure is to study Asian people for through his persona are filtered all the arguments Westerners give for looking and gazing upon others. These Oriental sleuths neutralized previous negative images of the Asian-American and offered to Asian-Americans a particular Americanized version of who they were and who they should be. In this, Hollywood cinema worked, that is, an institutional apparatus which described, taught and authorized particular view of Asian culture, Asian men and women and Asian family life. It created a system of discourse which constituted the Orient and the Asian as imaginary others who were simultaneously categorized, exterirized, excluded and included within the Western framework.

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses various reports within the issue on topics including a multi-dimensional teaching environment for college English as foreign language (EFL) teaching in China, the possibilities of interdisciplinary teaching to connect the arts to other academic subjects, and the multifaceted images of Asian Americans illustrated in print magazines.