it is not funny to think of a jens lekman song right now.

I saw a reference to (what I guess) is an article by Karen Kelsky titled "Intimate Ideologies: Transnational Theory and Japan's 'Yellow Cabs'" in a chapter from Trespasses, a collection of works by the late Masao Miyoshi. Kelsky's article was published in a 1994 issue of Public Culture, and it discusses the topic of "Yellow Cabs" popularized by the (Japanese?) media and referencing Japanese women who choose to enter into casual, sexual relationships with non-Japanese men (for various reasons).

Since I read the article quickly (i.e., shallowly) I've probably missed its nuances; its argument, however, seems to be this: that Japanese women seem to challenge traditional Japanese ideologies of gender (and race) but in fact ultimately reinforce those hierarchies of Japanese and "Other," male and female, etc. by their behavior as "yellow cabs" (which, as Kelsky notes, is a derogatory term; so I apologize, but I, too, use it only for economy). Kelsky states, "Both sides of the debate between Japanese women and men over yellow cab behavior share a commitment to reaffirming the utter otherness of the Other, the unbridgable gap between Japan and the West, the centrality of Japan in the universe" (475).

Reading this made me want to read (more) works by the writers she references, mainly Yamada Eimi, Ieda Shoko, and Murakami Ryu. Except now I am paranoid that I only want to read them because I want to reinscribe ideologies of racial and gender hierarchy. Oh no... But what I mean is, I am fascinated by practices that can be critiqued as being not really upturning social orders at all; and I am also fascinated by those very critiques that can challenge or be complicit with the problematic practices of area studies. (I am not saying that Kelsy's critique is one or the other; I am just trying to practice thinking about the pitfalls of area studies and transnational studies...)