SPHINXX
IN SIGHT, OUT OF PLACE
an essay series by suiyi tang
it is no secret that the genre of travel writing has historically reiterated the colonial trope of “discovery” and “mastery” along an axis of weaponized knowledge. in a contemporary moment of celebrated cosmopolitanism, how does the racialized body undo both categories of the “global” and its “citizenship”? between the vicissitudes of empire and the melancholy of diaspora, what are the politics of seeing and being seen? casting the sticky web of racial capital along her transpacific movement, one east asian/american challenges the romance of return—opting, instead, to toggle the elisions of the slash. what emerges is a chorus in broken tongue; a mo(ve)ment of post-colonialism between the dash. can the subaltern speak? listen closely, and you just might hear her.
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shit! or, why i dread the bathroom
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cover art by edwin ushiro