Afro Asia

Fred Ho is a Chinese American social activist. A renowned baritone saxophonist, composer, and bandleader, he founded the Afro Asian Music Ensemble in 1982.Bill V. Mullen is Director of American Studies and Professor of English at Purdue University. He is the author of Afro-Orientalism.

“Afro-Asia is a long overdue tribute to the long history of cross-ethnic intellectual connections, as well as a celebration of artistic collaborations, between African Americans and Asian Americans. . . . Fred Ho and Bill Mullen have produced a book that is groundbreaking in its intellectual rigor, as well as aesthetically pleasing. . . . Afro-Asia is highly recommended to anyone interested in how radical ideas and concepts travel through and across cultural boundaries and eventually bloom with new brilliance.” - Carol Huang, Journal of African American History “At a moment when the national media are abuzz with predictions of a new era of post-racial politics, Fred Ho and Bill Mullen’s anthology on the intersections of African and Asian Americans remind us of the complex ways that race has shaped and continues to shape our lives in this country. Afro Asia compiles a diverse set of essays that illuminate a repressed tradition, spanning the early 19th century onwards, of ‘creative political and cultural resistance grounded in Afro-Asian collaboration and connectivity.’” - Manan Desai, Against the Current “Afro Asia preserves and promotes critical thinking and activism in a global culture. Here, with incisive writings from diverse intellectuals, artists, and activists, Fred Ho and Bill V. Mullen make a vital contribution towards liberation praxis that challenges the perceived permanence of manufactured distrust and division.”-Joy James, author of Shadowboxing: Representations of Black Feminist Politics “Fred Ho and Bill V. Mullen have assembled a first-rate dossier of Afro-Asian work. It is equal parts lyrical and analytical. Flies like a butterfly; stings like a bee.”-Vijay Prashad, author of Everybody Was Kung Fu Fighting: Afro-Asian Connections and the Myth of Cultural Purity “Afro-Asia is a long overdue tribute to the long history of cross-ethnic intellectual connections, as well as a celebration of artistic collaborations, between African Americans and Asian Americans. . . . Fred Ho and Bill Mullen have produced a book that is groundbreaking in its intellectual rigor, as well as aesthetically pleasing. . . . Afro-Asia is highly recommended to anyone interested in how radical ideas and concepts travel through and across cultural boundaries and eventually bloom with new brilliance.” - Carol Huang (Journal of African American History) “At a moment when the national media are abuzz with predictions of a new era of post-racial politics, Fred Ho and Bill Mullen’s anthology on the intersections of African and Asian Americans remind us of the complex ways that race has shaped and continues to shape our lives in this country. Afro Asia compiles a diverse set of essays that illuminate a repressed tradition, spanning the early 19th century onwards, of ‘creative political and cultural resistance grounded in Afro-Asian collaboration and connectivity.’” - Manan Desai (Against the Current)

• Acknowledgments ixIntroduction / Fred Ho and Bill Mullen 1Part I. The African and Asian Diasporas in the West: 1800–1950 Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen: The Roots to the Black-Asian Conflict / Fred Ho 20Chinese Freedom Fighters in Cuba: From Bondage to Liberation, 1847–1898 / Lisa Yun 30Seoul City Sue and the Bugout Blues: Black American Narratives of the Forgotten War / Daniel Widener 55Part II. From Bandung to the Black Panthers: National Liberation, the Third World, Mao, and Malcolm Statement Supporting the Afro-American in Their Just Struggle Against Racial Discrimination by U.S. Imperialism, August 8, 1963 / Mao Zedong 91Statement by Mao Zedong, Chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, in Support of the Afro-American Struggle Against Violent Repression, April 16, 1968 / Mao Zedong 94Black Like Mao: Red China and Black Revolution / Robin D. G. Kelley and Betsy Esch 97The Inspiration of Mao and the Chinese Revolution on the Black Liberation Movement and the Asian Movement on the East Coast / Fred Ho 155The Black Liberation Movement and Japanese American Activism: The Radical Activism of Richard Aoki and Yuri Kochiyama / Diane C. Fujino 165Why Do We Lie About Telling the Truth? / Kalamu ya Salaam 198Part III. Afro/Asian Arts: Catalysts, Collaborations, and the Coltrane Aesthetic The Yellow and the Black / Ishmael Reed 217Not Just a "Special Issue": Gender, Sexuality, and Post-1965 Afro Asian Coalition Building in the Yardbird Reader and This Bridge Called by Back / Cheryl Higashida 220Bill Cole: African American Musician of the Asian Double Reeds / Fred Ho 256Martial Arts Is Nothing if Not Cool: Speculations on the Intersection between Martial Arts and African American Expressive Culture / Kim Hewitt 265The American Drum Set: Black Musicians and Chinese Opera along the Mississippi River / royal hartigan with Fred Ho 285Is Kung Fu Racist? / Ron Wheeler with David Kaufman 291Yellow Lines: Asian Americans and Hip Hop / Thien-bao Thuc Phi 295Part IV. Afro/Asia Expressive Writing Secret Colors and the Possibilities of Coalition: An African American-Asian American Collaboration / David Mura and Alexs Pate 321We Don't Stand a Chinaman's Chance Unless We Create a Revolution / Kalamu ya Salaam 354El Chino / Lisa Yun 359Samchun in the Grocery Store / Ishle Park 363Self-Rebolusyon, April 1998 / Maya Almachar Santos 365Chyna and Me / JoYin C Shih 369All That / Everett Hoagland 376Contributors 379Index 383