Episode 09: Sleepy stereotypes

In this episode: Danielle Wong joins Joshua and Cressida to talk about the “Sleepy Asians” meme of Tumblr fame. What’s behind the question “why do Asians sleep in public?” and what made it a sensational meme with its own creepshots? (10:59). How can we think from cultures of sleep, anti-Asian racism, and patterns of labour migration to get us to photos of Asian people in western multicultural cities asleep in the library or on the train?! How are sleep practices underscored by racial logics? (16:37). We all discuss “techno-orientalism” (30:48), and anti-Asian stereotypes connected to tech, “model minorities," and the “bamboo ceiling” (36:38). Increasingly we work globally and work is outsourced to people in other timezones. Joshua asks Danielle how we should think about sleep as “transnational” (41:06). And what is the disruptive potential of sleep? (45:29)

Mentioned in this episode: Danielle Wong, “Sleepy Asians,” Representations 168, 2024; Bernd Hagemann, Sleeping Chinese (2010); Eric Leleu, Day Dreamers (2015); Brigitte Steger, anthropologist of sleep in Japan; Ralph Jennings, “Why Asians Sleep in Public: Two Answers from Taiwan,” Forbes Asia, October 27 2015; Edward Said, Orientalism (1978); Matthew Wolf-Meyer, The Slumbering Masses (2012); Raka Shome, “Thinking Through the Diaspora: Call Centers, India, and a New Politics of Hybridity” (2006); Young-Hae Chang Heavy Industries, “The Art of Sleep;” Jean Ma, At the Edges of Sleep (2022); Franny Nudelman, Fighting Sleep (2019). Thumbnail is the Tumblr icon.

Transcript coming soon…