Description
Book SynopsisConsiders questions of Asian American Identity and issues of homeland and home in Asian American film.
Trade Review“Because it grapples with the difficult issues of race, ethnicity, and identity, this book is an important contribution to literature on the history and formation of the Asian American community.”—Gina Marchetti, author of
Romance and the "Yellow Peril": Race, Sex, and Discursive Strategies in Hollywood Fiction“Identities, Peter X Feng reminds us in this perceptive work, elude capture. They are always in motion. Moreover, even as cinema in the U.S. defines the American subject, spectators ultimately determine their identities. Not content with a reading of text and context in Asian American cinema, although he offers that in great detail, Feng seeks out the creative imagination that rubs against cinematic conventions and inspires both the maker and spectator.”—Gary Y. Okihiro, author of
THE COLUMBIA GUIDE to ASIAN AMERICAN HISTORYTable of ContentsAcknowledgments ix
Introduction: Locating Asian American Cinema in Discontinuity 1
I. Myths of Origin
Ethnography, Romance, Home Movies
1. The Camera as Microscope: Cinema and Ethnographic Discourse 23
2. Pioneering Romance: Immigration, Americanization, and Asian Women 38
3. Articulating Silence: Sansei and Memories of the Camps 68
II. Travelogues
4. Decentering the Middle Kingdom: ABCs and the PRC 103
5. Lost in the Media Jungle: Tiana Thi Thanh Nga's Hollywood Mimicry 128
III. Performing Transformation
6. Becoming Asian American:
Chan Is Missing 151
7. We're Queer! We're Where? Locating Transgressive Films 170
8. Paying Lip Service: Narrators in
Surname Viet Given Name Nam and
The Joy Luck Club 191
Afterword: The Asian American Muse 209
Notes 215
Bibliography 259
Index 287
