De-exceptionalizing Sunisa Lee: Uneven Gymnastics and a Hmong American State-less Critique

IF 0.5 4区社会学 0 HUMANITIES, MULTIDISCIPLINARY

AMERICAN QUARTERLY Pub Date : 2023-09-01 DOI:10.1353/aq.2023.a905866

Kong Pheng Pha, Kari Smalkoski

引用次数: 0

Abstract

Abstract:Hmong American gymnast Sunisa "Suni" Lee won the gold medal in the individual all-around event at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. This essay analyzes the media frenzy surrounding Lee's rise to Olympic stardom in US gymnastics. In particular, it focuses on how the media narrate Lee's family and Hmong ethnic history of being refugees to becoming an Olympic gold medalist. This essay deconstructs how the state exceptionalizes this history in the context of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics in service of the imperial US nation-state in ways that recuperates US empire and bolsters US nationalism. The essay reveals the ways that ongoing anti-Asian racism in the US contradicts the state's claim to Lee's gold medal. Ultimately, the essay argues that Hmong American writing during Lee's Olympic journey presents a "state-less critique" that situates Lee's success in her ethnic Hmong American community and not within the nation-state.

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去个例化苏妮莎·李:高差体操和苗族美国人的无州批判

摘要:在2020年东京奥运会体操个人全能比赛中，美籍苗族选手李苏妮萨夺得金牌。这篇文章分析了媒体对李宗伟成为美国体操奥运明星的狂热追捧。尤其关注媒体是如何讲述从难民到奥运金牌得主的李宗伟的家庭和苗族历史的。这篇文章解构了在2020年东京奥运会的背景下，美国是如何将这段历史例外化的，以重振美国帝国和支持美国民族主义的方式为帝国主义美国民族国家服务的。这篇文章揭示了美国持续存在的反亚裔种族主义与美国声称获得金牌的说法相矛盾。最后，这篇文章认为，在李的奥运之旅中，苗族美国人的写作呈现出一种“无国家批判”，将李的成功置于她的苗族美国人社区，而不是民族国家。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

AMERICAN QUARTERLY HUMANITIES, MULTIDISCIPLINARY-

CiteScore

0.80

自引率

0.00%

发文量

期刊介绍： American Quarterly represents innovative interdisciplinary scholarship that engages with key issues in American Studies. The journal publishes essays that examine American societies and cultures, past and present, in global and local contexts. This includes work that contributes to our understanding of the United States in its diversity, its relations with its hemispheric neighbors, and its impact on world politics and culture. Through the publication of reviews of books, exhibitions, and diverse media, the journal seeks to make available the broad range of emergent approaches to American Studies.