“Word & Image: Russell C. Leong”

The UCLA Asian American Studies Center Press announces the release of a special issue of Amerasia Journal marking the retirement of long-time Senior Editor Russell C. Leong.  Guest edited by James Kyung-Jin Lee (Asian American Studies, UC Irvine) and King-Kok Cheung (English and Asian American Studies, UCLA), “Word & Image:  Russell C. Leong” celebrates not only Leong’s immeasurable influence on the development of Asian American Studies during his thirty-three year tenure at the helm of Amerasia Journal, but also his distinguished career as an artist and writer.  As former AASC Director and the founding publisher of Amerasia Journal Don T. Nakanishi says of his friend and colleague, “Russell arguably has been the most influential and significant individual in the field of Asian American Studies because of what he accomplished as the Senior Editor of Amerasia Journal.”  “Word & Image” covers the multitude of areas in which Leong has had a lasting impact, be it in promoting Asian American poetry and prose, or scholarship and research.  The issue also speaks to how far-ranging Leong’s contributions to Asian American Studies have been, going back to the inception of the field, while moving it forward into uncharted transnational territory.

“Word & Image” includes

• Critical explorations on Russell Leong’s career and work by leading Asian American Studies scholars King-Kok Cheung, James Kyung-Jin Lee, and Sau-ling C. Wong

• Creative pieces inspired by Leong from some of the most prominent figures of Asian American arts and letters, such as Jeffery Paul Chan, Frank Chin, Janice Mirikitani, Shawn Wong, and Karen Tei Yamashita

• Tributes from China and Taiwan by Yibing Huang and Te-hsing Shan

• Art, poetry, and critical work from Russell Leong himself

A complete listing of the table of contents and ordering information are after the jump…

Word & Image: Russell C. Leong
Guest Editors: James Kyung-Jin Lee and King-Kok Cheung

Contents
To our readers
From the Founding Publisher of Amerasia Journal
Don T. Nakanishi

Introduction
Anxieties of Influence
James Kyung-Jin Lee

Selected Bibliography of the Works of Russell C. Leong
Amerasia Journal Editorial Staff

I.  Poetics, Politics, History
Poetry within Earshot:
Notes on an Asian American Generation 1968-1978
Russell C. Leong

Records of the Historian:  For Him Mark Lai
Russell C. Leong

The Singing
Janice Mirikitani

II.  Writing on Russell Leong’s Writings
Bie You Dong Tian: Another World Lies Beyond
Russell C. Leong

Slanted Allusions:  Bilingual Poetics and Transnational Politics in Marilyn Chin and Russell Leong
King-Kok Cheung

“You can’t generalize, Professor, though I know NYU is a good school”:  Upstart vs. Legitimate Knowledges in Russell Leong’s “Eclipse”
Dominika Ferens

“Stranger Among Fellow Strangers”:  Religion, Intersectionality, and the Creation of a Sense of Home in Russell Leong’s “Bodhi Tree”
Khanh Ho

Circuits/Cycles of Desire:  Buddhism, Diaspora Theory, and Identity Politics in Russell Leong’s Phoenix Eyes
Sau-Ling C. Wong

III.  In Search of a Character in Fiction:  Stories
Happy Chinatown Tours
Frank Chin

The Birth of Wallace Lin
Shawn Wong

1:  Year of the Monkey (from I Hotel)
Karen Tei Yamashita

Russell Now and Then
Jeffery Paul Chan

El Ensayo del Fin del Mundo
David K. Song

IV.  Chinese Encounters
Stone Turtle
Mai Mang

Taijiquan
Russell C. Leong

Congratulations on Russell’s Honorable Retirement
Yao Maolin

Tian Qiao/Sky Bridge—Taipei & Los Angeles
Russell C. Leong

Phoenix in Transit
Te-hsing Shan

Peels for Salt
Luo Xuanmin

The Phoenix That Dances Alone with the Body and the Spirit:  A Review of Phoenix Eyes and Other Stories from China
Wang Hui

V.  Legacies
Message from a Publications Collective Worker
Mary Uyematsu Kao

Poet and Muse
David K. Yoo

Into East Rivers
Russell C. Leong

This issue of Amerasia Journal costs $15.00 plus $5.00 for shipping and handling and 9.25 percent sales tax for California residents ($21.39).  Make checks payable to “Regents of U.C.”  VISA, MASTERCARD, and DISCOVER are also accepted; include expiration date and phone number on correspondence.  The mailing address is: UCLA Asian American Studies Center Press, 3230 Campbell Hall, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1546.

Phone:  310-825-2968

Email:  aascpress@aasc.ucla.edu

Annual subscriptions for Amerasia Journal are $99.99 for individuals and $445.00 for libraries and other institutions.  The institutional price includes access to the Amerasia Journal online database, which has full-text versions of all Amerasia Journal issues published since 1971.  Amerasia Journal is published three times a year:  Winter, Spring, and Fall.