Each chapter focuses on a media depiction of Asian American man. Tan Hoang Nguyen, an assistant professor of English and Film Studies at Bryn Mawr College, divides the book into four chapters. Through this way of observing texts, Nguyen argues that instead of attempting to claim Asian American masculinity in society through promoting heteronormative masculine ideals, the Asian American society should embrace bottomhood and queer depiction of Asian American masculinity in the media as the location through which we can create a new masculine ideal that subverts the masculine norm prevalent in our society. How he incorporates “low theory” in this book is well explained in his sentence: “my reading of texts about bottomhood are consistently guided by a mode of reading that is informed by theories and practices deemed lowly, backward, and out of date” (7). He embraces a method that he calls “low theory” derived from Judith Halberstam’s work. Nguyen weaves the critical reading of various films depicting Asian American male characters with theories in various fields including that of Eve Sedgwick, Judith Halberstam, Laura Marks, and Peter Lehman. Tan Hoang Nguyen’s A View from the Bottom deals with the issue of Asian American masculinity as it is depicted in American media.
