Description
Book SynopsisTo date, there has been little sustained attention given to the historical cinema relations between Australia and Asia. This is a significant omission given Australia's geo-political position and the place Asia has held in the national imaginary, oscillating between threat and opportunity. Many accounts of Australian cinema begin with the 1970s film revival, placing Asian-Australian cinema within a post-revival schema of multicultural or diasporic cinema and ignoring Asian-Australian connections prior to the revival. Transnational Australian Cinema charts a history of Asian-Australian cinema, encompassing the work of diasporic Asian filmmakers, films featuring images of Asia and Asians, films produced by Australians working in Asia's film industries or addressed at Asian audiences, and Asian films that use Australian resources, including locations and personnel. Utilizing an interdisciplinary approach, the book considers diasporic Asian histories, the impact of government immigration a
Trade ReviewFar more than the first major study of a supposedly “minor” cinema too long unexplored, Transnational Australian Cinema is a thought adventure of exceptional brilliance and daring. The “strong transnationalism” of its field-expanding method not only brings us rich historical discoveries but also creates new ways of thinking representation together with policy, viewership with social governance, ethnic identities with resource allocation, and film forms with production ecologies. This book redefines the field of national cinema studies and in the process it expands the capacities of film history to illuminate the great debates of our time. -- Meaghan Morris, Professor of Gender and Cultural Studies, University of Sydney
Transnational Australian Cinema: Ethics in the Asian Diasporas is a welcome addition to scholarship on both Australian and transnational cinema. It makes significant and new arguments about the changing representation of Asia and Asian subjects in Australian cinema, and it proposes a useful approach to these subjects that allows them to be viewed in new ways. It will be of great interest not only to students and scholars of Australian and transnational cinema, but also to those in Australian studies, and particularly in Asian studies. -- Ben Goldsmith, Queensland University of Technology
Table of ContentsChapter 1: Reframing Australian Cinema: Transnationalism, Ethics, and Asian Australian Cinema Part A. Reframing National Cinema History Chapter 2: Asian Stereotypes in 1920s Australian Cinema: The Cook, the Thief, the Wife and Lover Chapter 3: Colombo Plan Documentary: Australia and Asia in the Postwar Era Chapter 4: The Transnationalisation of the Australian Western: Japanese-Australian Productions in the Late 1960s Part B. Australia’s Film Renaissance and Beyond: Uneasy Cinematic Encounters Chapter 5: Romance, Entrepreneurialism and the Intercultural Couple Chapter 6: The Global Back of Beyond: Ethics and the Asian Australian Road Movie Chapter 7: Landscape Cinema: Asianness and Indigeneity Part C. Networks and Technologies: Contemporary Asian Australian Cinema Chapter 8: New Ethics in the Asian Australian Short Film Chapter 9: The Community Cultural Development of Action Cinema Chapter 10: Co-productions and New Queer Paradigms for Mobilities and Migration
