‘Commodity Orientalism’ Topic Of W&L Lecture

‘Commodity Orientalism’ Topic Of W&L Lecture

Sylvia Shin Huey Chong, associate professor of American studies and English at the University of Virginia, will deliver a lecture titled “Commodity Orientalism: Historicizing Asian America Through Objects” at Washington and Lee University this Friday, March 14, at noon in the Watson Galleries.

The event is free and open to the public, but seating is limited, and registration is required: https://tiny.cc/commodity-orientalism.

The lecture is part of the Museums at W&L’s “Lunch and Learn” series, which this year centers around the theme “Buried Stories, Hidden Lives” and invites poets, scholars and community members to consider whose voices and stories have shaped our dominant historical narratives, whose stories have been excluded, erased or hidden, and how we can render these stories more visible. The Museums will provide a lunch served at 11:30 a.m. before this talk.

Chong will engage with Stephanie Shih’s “Long Time No See ( 好久不見 )” by tracing the foods, decorative objects, clothing and other consumer goods that form the backdrop of Asian American history. Although a frequent refrain of Asian American activism has been to assert humanity against objectification, Chong’s lecture will question what it might mean to track the commodities through which Asians have come to be known in the U.S., and how that would differ from a history that focuses on Asian American migration, political acts and social organization.

The Museums at W&L are open to the public Wednesday-Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. To learn more about the 2024-2025 exhibitions, visit the Museums at W&L’s website: https:// wlu.edu/arts/museums.