Representations Of Asia

AY2015/2016 Semester 1

The focus of this module is on the filmic representations of Asia and Asians in Hollywood cinema. In studying films from the early 1900s to the current Asian "invasion" of Hollywood, we will locate these cultural representations in the history of Asian immigration in the United States, and will examine how American global adventurism has spawned racial discourses that help produce these representations. Filmic analysis in this module will cover the works of directors as diverse as D. W. Griffith, Frank Capra, Josef von Sternberg, Joshua Logan, Ang Lee, Zhang Yimou, Wayne Wang, Feng Xiaogang, and Quentin Tarantino.