Pure Beauty: Judging Race in Japanese American Beauty Pageants

(Paperback)

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Examines the question, Who is Japanese American The author tackles this question by studying a cultural institution: Japanese American community beauty pageants in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, and Honolulu. King-O'Riain employs rich ethnographic fieldwork to discover how these pageants seek to maintain racial and ethnic purity amid shifting notions of cultural identity. She uses revealing in-depth interviews with candidates, queens, and community members, her experiences as a pageant committee member, and archival researchincluding Japanese and English newspapers, museum collections, private photo albums, and mementosto establish both the importance and impossibility of racial purity.