Abstract

In 1994, upon his bid for a seat on the City Council, Joe Walker distributed flyers calling the citizens of Temple City to: “Stop Bridal Shops. Investigate these businesses that are plaguing our city.” The bridal shops to which Walker referred belonged to Asian immigrants who informally set up businesses in a suburban area east of Los Angeles to provide products and services to ethnic and diasporic (East and Southeast) Asian brides from all over Southern California. Created to meet the needs of couples wishing to incorporate “culture” in their weddings, the shops that line Temple City’s main street offer services ranging from photography, bridal attire rentals, and hair and make-up style transformations. The transnational bridal industry that emerged in the early 1990s when exchange between Asia and the U.S. intensified with the booming “tiger” economies contributed to regional global restructuring, but also fomented tensions in local spaces whereby the burgeoning Asian population was perceived to be threatening the landscape. This paper deconstructs the meanings of gender and class behind the circuits of representations as well as the racial discourses surrounding the re-ordering of social, economic, and political arrangements initiated by migration from Asia.