Description
Book SynopsisFrom yellow-face performance in the 19th century to Jackie Chan in the 21st, this book examines articles of clothing and modes of adornment as a window on how American views of China have changed in the past 150 years. It provides a cultural history of three iconic objects in theatrical and cinematic performance.
Trade ReviewProfessor Metzger offers a rich and detailed study of Chinese fashion, calling it the 'Sino/American interface' that marks political and cultural investments in America's views of China and Chinese Americans.
* New Books in Asian American Studies *
Chinese Looks is a sophisticated and well-researched publication that sheds light on how our appearances are tools for expressing identity, culture, politics, and issues that cross these complex boundaries.
* Costume *
Cultivating both a careful examination of cinematic technique and a broad theoretical understanding of global cultural exchange, Metzger does an especially good job of putting the cultural industries of China and North America into conversation.
* The Drama Review *
This is an important work that should be of interest to scholars in the fields of theatre, performance, cinema, queer studies, art history, costume design, and visual culture.
* Modern Drama *
A welcome addition to theatre and performance studies, film studies, Asian American studies, fashion theory, and gender and sexuality studies, Chinese Looks is poised to provide entree into future conversations about China's continued rise in geopolitics, the next chapter in the Sino/American interface.
* Journal of American Drama and Theatre *
Table of ContentsIntroduction
Part I. The Queue
1. Charles Parsloe's Chinese Fetish
2. Screening Tails
Part II. The Qipao
3. Anna May Wong and the Qipao's American Debut
4. Exoticus Eroticus, or the Silhouette of Suzie's Slits during the Cold War
5. Cut from Memory: Wong Kar-Wai's Fashionable Homage
Part III. The Mao Suit
6. An Unsightly Vision
7. Uniform Beliefs?
8. Mao Fun Suits
Epilogue: The Tuxedo
Notes
Index
