The idea for Skin on Skin emerged after Hamamoto asked his Asian American students whom they fantasized about – and learned that white faces and bodies dominated their erotic imaginations. The possible solution to such “psychosexual alienation”? As he wrote in “The Joy Fuck Club,” an essay published in a political-science journal, “A Yellow porno practice can help recuperate [an Asian American] sexuality that has been distorted [by] an oppressive system of white racial supremacy.”

Although Asian and Asian American porn actresses like Asia Carrera and Annabel Chong have made their mark in the adult-film industry, Hamamoto points out, their male counterparts are nowhere to be seen. His film is a bit of erotic affirmative action for the Asian American man, overrepresented by sexless movie nerds and chopsocky action heroes: the ludicrous Long Duk Dong of Sixteen Candles, the Jet Li or Jackie Chan action hero who never gets the girl, the Internet nerds, Chinese restaurant dishwashers, Triad members who are too busy making an illegal buck to fuck, even the indolent Chinese lover of Marguerite Duras’ The Lover. “I’m not trying to present a ‘strong’ image of Asian American men,” says Hamamoto. “That’s what we are. We know how to fuck. Look how many Asian motherfuckers there are around the world. We outnumber everyone.”
…
He even reserves special ire for Asians who have sex with whites. Asian American women form a statistically higher number of this group — they marry outside of their ethnic groups far more than Asian American men do. “You are what you fuck,” says Hamamoto. “And if you’re an Asian American who fucks White people, that’s in essence what you are despite physical appearances … There is no color-blind anything, even at the level of the emotions.”