People of the pagus: Orientalized bodies and migration in an Asian Pacific Rim

This project studies the "people of the pagus," Asian migrants whose bodies join multiple sites in post-colonial situations, and provides a theoretical framework for examining the participation of contemporary Asian migration in constructing culturally an Asian Pacific Rim region.;The introduction examines circulations of Asian bodies through the idea of the "pagus," an anatomical suffix which provides another name for Siamese twins, a reference to an uncolonized Asian nation, to the original Siamese Twins Chang and Eng Bunker (1811-1874), and to monstrous bodies. The "people of the pagus" survive through the multiple attachments of their circumstances.;Chapter one analyzes the starlike qualities and migrations of actress Joan Chen, examining the ways Temptation of the Monk (You Seng), The Last Emperor, Hong Meigui, Bai Meigui (Red Rose, White Rose) and the television series Twin Peaks uses the body of a Chinese woman character to reconcile contested nationhood.;Chapter two questions the network of migration and nationalism in Taiwanese New Cinema through Vive L'Amour (Aiqing Wansui) by Tsai Mingliang and The Wedding Banquet by Ang Lee. The representation or marginalized sexualities through gay male characters in both films suggests an affinity between the relatively marginalized position of New Cinema and ROC Taiwan in relation to a more Westernized center. This chapter offers a new way to theorize diaspora as residing in one geographical space and pushes against the limitations of Eurocentric applications of post-colonial theory.;Chapter three examines cultural constructions of the Philippines. By analyzing discourses on AIDS and sex industries in Pagsanjan, a male-male international sex tourist site, and around U.S. military bases, the study finds Asian bodies are commodified and Asian sexualities are erased similar to the way Apocalypse Now displaces U.S. colonialism in the Philippines onto its representation of the U.S.-Vietnam War. Concluding with Lino Brocka's film Macho Dancer the chapter examines the internal and international migration of sex workers from the provinces to the metropole.;The project has several implications. First, it foregrounds Asian histories of imperialism which are submerged in current work in post-colonial studies. Second, it contributes to Asian American Studies by looking beyond nationalist boundaries. Third, the concept of the pagus questions aesthetic readings which occur when products migrate in international film festivals and box offices. Finally, by analyzing different contexts of neo-imperialism in conjunction with different foci, the dissertation demonstrates a new viability for cultural criticism which addresses First and Third World in a spectrum. The concept of the people of the pagus examines borders of nations and migrating peoples in an Asian Pacific Rim, simultaneously foregrounding a theoretical attention on monstrosity.;In conclusion, the dissertation produces a theoretical claim. The concept of the people of the pagus, as examined in the texts collected here, provides a grid for understanding orientalized bodies in migration.