Women's Studies 249 Asian American Women in Film and Video Fall

Women’s Studies 249 Asian American Women in Film and Video Fall Semester 2006 Tuesday & Friday 9:50-11:00am

Professor: Elena Tajima Creef 422 Founders, x2199 [email protected] Office Hours: Tues/Fri. 11am-12nn

This course will serve as an introduction to Asian American film and video and begin with the premise that there is a distinctly American style of Asian “Orientalist” representation by tracing its development in Hollywood film over the last eighty-five years. We examine the politics of interracial romance, the phenomenon of “yellow face,” the relationship between literature and film, and the different constructions of Asian American femininity, masculinity, and sexuality. We also look at contemporary trends in Asian American and trans-global Asian/American cinema where our focus is on both documentary, short feature, experimental films and videos that deal centrally with the politics of race, class, and gender representation in American history and culture.

Required Books Darrell Y. Hamamoto & Sandra Liu, eds. Countervisions: Asian American Film Criticism (Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press, 2000) Gina Marchetti. Romance & the “Yellow Peril”: Race, Sex, and Discursive Practices in Hollywood Fiction (Berkeley/Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1993) Amy Tan, The Joy Luck Club (New York: Putnam, 1989) A PDF Course Reader (pdf)—available electronically on class conference

Course Requirements Mandatory participation in weekly meetings/screenings/discussion. Two short papers (5-7 pages). Final paper (12-15 pages plus bibliography) Film journal: 2 (typed) pages per week on the films to be collected three times during semester. In-class presentations (including a final presentation at the end of the semester). Note: no late papers or journals accepted.

Films to be Screened: W. D. Griffith. “Broken Blossoms” (1919) Mira Nair. “Mississippi Masala” (1992) E.A. Dupont. “Piccadilly” (1929 ) Kayo Hatta. “Picture Bride” (1995) Joseph Von Sternberg. “Shanghai Express” Asian American Television: Margaret Cho in “All- (1932) American Girl” (1994) Joshua Logan. “Sayonara.” (1957) Hiroko Yamazaki. “Juxta” (1989) Jack Cardiff. “My Geisha” (1962) Pam Tom. “Two Lies” (1989) Richard Quine. “The World of Suzie Wong” Helen Lee. “Sally’s Beauty Spot” (1990) (1960) Deborah Gee. “Slaying the Dragon” (1988) Wayne Wang. “The Joy Luck Club” (1993) Valerie Soe: “Picturing Oriental Girls” (1992) Rea Tajiri. “History and Memory: For Akiko and Takashige” (1991) Rea Tajiri: “Strawberry Fields” (1997)

Class Meetings, Readings, & Films to be Screened

Week 1 Introduction to Asian/American Women in Film Sept. 5/8 Introductions Film: Valerie Soe. “Picturing Oriental Girls: A (Re)Educational Videotape” (1992) & Deborah Gee: “Slaying the Dragon” (1988) Readings: Gina Marchetti: Chapter 1: “Introduction”; Renee Tajima: “Lotus Blossoms Don’t Bleed” (pdf)

Week 2 Hollywood’s Imagined “Orient” Sept. 12/15 Film: Joseph Von Sternberg: “Shanghai Express” (1932) Readings: Cynthia W. Liu: “’When Dragon Ladies Die, Do They Come Back as Butterflies?’ Re-Imagining Anna May Wong” (H &L); Gina Marchetti: Chap. 3: “The Threat of Captivity.”

Week 3 The Desiring of Asian Women in Postwar America Sept. 19/22 Film: Joshua Logan: “Sayonara” (1957) Readings: Gina Marchetti: Chap. 7: “Tragic and Transcendent Love”; William Worden and Janet Wentworth Smith: “They’re Bringing Home War Brides” (pdf)

Week 4 “Yellow Face” Fantasies and the Romance of Japan Sept. 26/29 Film: Jack Cardiff: “My Geisha” (1962) & Madonna: “Nothing Really Matters” (1999) Readings: Gina Marchetti: Chap. 9: “The Return of the Butterfly”; Richard B. Ito: “A Certain Slant: A Brief History of Hollywood Yellowface” available on-line at: http://www.brightlightsfilm.com/18/18_yellow.html

Week 5 Recuperating a (Problematic) Classic Film for Asian American Women’s Studies Oct. 3/6` Film: Richard Quine: “The World of Suzy Wong” (1960) Readings: Peter X. Feng: “Recuperating Suzie Wong: A Fan’s Nancy Kwan Diary” (H&L); Gina Marchetti: Chap. 6: “White Knights in Hong Kong.”

Week 6 Historical Memory & Women in the Internment Camps Oct. 10 Fall Break: No Class

Oct. 13 Film (screened in class): Rea Tajiri: “History and Memory” (1991)

Week 7 Historical Memory and Women in the Internment Camps Oct. 17/20 Film: Rea Tajiri: “Strawberry Fields” (1997) Readings: Glen Masato Mimura: “Antidote for Collective Amnesia? Rea Tajiri’s Germinal Image” (in H & L); Martia Sturken: “History and Memory” (pdf)

Week 8 Asian/American Masculinity: Revisiting Classics from the Silent Era Oct. 24 Tanner Conference—no classes.

Oct. 27 Film: D.W. Griffith: “Broken Blossoms” (1919) Special guest lecturer: Professor Alison L. McKee. D.W. Griffith’s “Broken Blossoms” (1919) Readings: Gina Marchetti: Chapter 2: “The Rape Fantasy: The Cheat and Broken Blossoms”; Richard Oehling: “The Yellow Menace” (pdf)

Week 9 Between Yellow and Black: Cross-Racial Romance and Desire Oct. 31/Nov. 3 Film: Mira Nair: “Mississippi Masala” (1992) Readings: Purnima Bose and Linta Varghese: “‘Mississippi Masala,’ South Asian Activism, and Agency” (pdf); Adeleke Adeeko: “Mississippi Masala: Crossing Desire and Interest” (pdf); Binita 3

Mehta: “Emigrants Twice Displaced: Race, Color, and Identity in Mira Nair’s ‘Mississippi Masala’” pdf).

Week 10 East to America: Representing Japanese Picture Brides in Independent Film Nov. 7/10 Film: Kayo Hatta: “Picture Bride” (1995) Readings: Mitsuye Yamada: “I Learned to Sew” (pdf); Alice Chai: “’Picture Brides: Feminist Analysis of Life Histories of Hawaii’s Early Immigrant Women from Japan, Okinawa, and Korea” (pdf); Gail Miyasaki. “Hole Hole Bushi: The Only Song of the Japanese in Hawaii” (pdf).

Week 11 Asian American Feminist Short Films Nov. 14/17 Films (screened in class): Pam Tom: “Two Lies” (1989); Hiroko Yamazaki: “Juxta” (1989); Readings: Jun Xing: “Hybrid Cinema by Asian American Women” (H&L); Marina Heung: “Representing Ourselves, Films and Videos by Asian American/Canadian Women” (pdf); Valerie Soe: “Fighting Fire With Fire: Detournement, Activism, and Video Art” (H&L).

Week 12 Asian American Feminist Short Films Nov. 21 Film (screened in class): Helen Lee: “Sally’s Beauty Spot” (1990) (pdf) Readings: Helen Lee: “A Peculiar Sensation: A Personal Genealogy of Korean American Women’s Cinema” (pdf);

Nov. 24 Thanksgiving Recess: No class

Week 13 From Literature to Film: Representing Asian/American Mothers & Daughters Nov. 28/Dec. 1 Film: Wayne Wang: “The Joy Luck Club” (1993) Readings: Amy Tan: The Joy Luck Club (1989)

Week 14 Examining Margaret Cho’s “All American Girl” (1994) Television Series Dec. 5/8 Student presentations

Week 15 Recuperating Anna May Wong’s Place in Asian American Film History Dec. 12 Film: E.A. Dupont: “Piccadilly (1929) Readings: TBA

Final Papers due December 21 at 4:30pm in my box in Women’s Studies Lounge