{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.022727272727272728, 'fraction_numerical': 0.004545454545454545, 'mean_word_length': 5.430656934306569, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 0, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
Mobility and Metaphor: Theorizing the (In)human in Asian/Diaspora

Abstract:This essay stages an encounter between critical discourses on Asia and Asian diaspora studies by focusing on their approaches to political subjectivity. Through an extended analysis of Gu Xiong’s multimedia installation Becoming Rivers (2010), I argue that questions of subjectivity in diaspora studies depend on a discursive humanism as the basis of its ethical and political commitments. Placing Gu’s work in conversation with critical texts by Paul Gilroy and Lily Cho, I argue that this humanism depends on a metaphorical structure that ultimately renders the (living) human an unstable concept. I conclude by suggesting how Gu’s staging of the “inhumanity” of diaspora might inform ongoing efforts to reanimate Asia as a term of critique and respond to the global racialization of displaced peoples.