UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA RIVERSIDE Transpacific Identities in Film and Literature A Dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in English by Paul Cheng December 2012 Dissertation Committee: Dr. Traise Yamamoto, Chairperson Dr. James Tobias Dr. Katherine Kinney Copyright by Paul Cheng 2012 The Dissertation of Paul Cheng is approved: _______________________________________________ _______________________________________________ _______________________________________________ Committee Chairperson University of California, Riverside Acknowledgements Eight years ago, this dissertation wasn't even a dream. With the support and encouragement of my wife, I “went back to school” and began the graduate program in English at UCR. It was a dizzying, exciting time, and now, eight years later, despite all the grumblings from others, the doubts, the teeth-gnashing, the long slogs, and the late nights, yes, I do have something to show for it. Of course, this something is the product of a whole group of people who have made this possible in so many ways. First, I would like to thank the professors at UCR who guided my graduate education and scholarship. With every seminar I took, every meeting during office hours, every question I had, every paper I wrote, every academic talk I heard, I learned something valuable, and I give these professors my humble and heartfelt thanks: George Haggerty – with whom I jumped into the deep end with with my first graduate school seminar - Steven Axelord, Rise Axelrod, Carole-Anne Tyler, Michelle Raheja, Vorris Nunley, Mimi Long, Lan Duong, Yenna Wu, and John Kim – who dressed me down at a conference for interrupting his session, but, while traumatic at the time, taught me the importance of academic decorum. Special thanks to the English department office support staff, with the emphasis on “support”: thanks to Susan Brown, Teri Carter and Tina Feldmann for helping me, and countless others, to keep all those ducks in a row. I would also like to thank individually the members of my committee. First, Katherine Kinney provided me excellent guidance in exploring American Literature after 1900, as well as introducing me to the idea of “air war.” There's a study about that iv somewhere in me. Next, James Tobias not only showed me and wife around Tokyo, but radically changed my thinking about film and visual culture and expanded my horizons in what seemed infinite directions. Every meeting with him was an occasion for my mind to be blown by his breadth of knowledge and his erudition. Finally, my deepest thanks to my dissertation chair, Traise Yamamoto. If there is any one word to describe her, in addition to her amazing scholarship and teaching ability, it is “dedicated.” Her dedication to her students, both graduate and undergraduate, is in itself inspiring, a model of service that I hope to emulate in my own teaching career. Finally, it is her uncanny ability to apply just the right amount of terror and inspiration that has helped me finish this dissertation. Without my fellow graduate students, this academic journey would have been much rougher and much lonelier. First, thanks to my master's cohort, all of whom have gone on to greater things. Specifically, I would like to acknowledge Helen Lovejoy for being amazingly brilliant and constantly inspiring me to work harder and do better, and Carl Walker for being honest and keeping me honest as well. And I would also like to thank for their support, all of Traise's other students, who helped me study, helped me write, and helped me keep sane: Nan Ma, Crystal Brownell, Valerie Solar, Sheila Bare, Melissa Garcia Knoll, Mary Song, Andrew Bond, and John Bryson Sooja. And just like Gilligan's Island, all the rest must be acknowledged and thanked as well: Matthew Snyder, Jan Roselle, Laura Westengard, John Terrill, Kody Lightfoot, Michael Podolny, Tanner Higgin, and Niklas Watanabe from the English department. From Comparative v Literature, I would like to acknowledge all those hard-working graduate students who expanded my thinking in new and wondrous directions: Jane Correia, Regina Yung, and Claire Yu. I would also like to single out two groups of people who have provided additional invaluable assistance to this project. First, Matthew Snyder, who let me check out library books under his name, and Michael Podolny who let me hijack his database access one random afternoon. And then, there's my small group of writing buddies who really kickstarted this whole writing thing: Elizabeth Spies, Niklas Watanabe, and Mary Song. Thank God for you guys and Starbucks. Speaking of Starbucks, it would be safe to say that I have worked at nearly every restaurant and coffee shop within a ten-mile radius of my house, and without these establishments, this dissertation would never have been completed. But, I must single out all the local Starbucks for providing me with the freezing cold workspace and the gallons of coffee, tea, and Frappucinos consumed in the duration of my writing. And mention must also be made to my two late-night writing eateries: Denny's and the Ten Ren Tea House. They get these by default. And finally, I have to acknowledge my friends and family who have endured years of listening to me talk about my dissertation. Well, Father Alan, Kell, Kiddie, Daren, Uncle Leon and Auntie Millie, Michael and Sarah, Lanie, Ron and Melinda, Time and Denise, Liza, Cameron, Corah, Craig, and Charles, IT'S DONE. Next, I would like to thank my parents who helped with watching the babies and kept the house running with meals and cleanings. And to Nathaniel and Madeline, who filled the house with vi their crying and laughter for only a mere two years. And, of course, my lovely wife, Michelle, who has been the never-ending support for this project. Thanks to her for encouraging me to follow my dreams and return to graduate school in the first place, and keeping our family afloat financially while waiting patiently for me to finish this darn thing. Simply put, this couldn't have happened without her. Finally, this dissertation is dedicated to Brendan, whose birth eight years ago is how I tracked my time in graduate school. In those intervening years, I've seen you say your first words, take your first steps, read your first book, attend your first Comic-Con, and watched you discover the world around you with that wide-eyed wonder that only children have. And look, eight years later, Daddy's done; time for the Daddy dance! vii ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Transpacific Identities in Film and Literature by Paul Cheng Doctor of Philosophy, Graduate Program in English University of California, Riverside, December 2012 Dr. Traise Yamamoto, Chairperson In her vital 2003 work, Imagine Otherwise, Kandace Chuh argues for an intervention in Asian American studies using a transnational analytic. As globalization increases in the twenty-first century, the continued movement of peoples, capital, and cultures across the Pacific Rim in myriad forms ranging from traditional immigration to new global digital networks demonstrates the importance of continuing the use of a transnational paradigm in Asian American studies. Moreover, within this specifically transpacific framework, this study specifically focuses on the role of visual culture, in the form of the global circulation of film and film images. As Stuart Hall and Paul Gilroy have argued for African American cultural identity, it is within this global circuit of film that minority communities and individuals have constructed their myriad cultural identities. Thus, this study considers the ways in which Asian American minority subjects interact within this transpacific network of global circulation of film. In other viii words, this project sits squarely at this intersection of these three theoretical strands: the transpacific, the role of visual culture, and the creation of an Asian American identity. Specifically, this study explores the various ways in which different works film and literature articulate both the realities and possibilities of new transpacific identities constructed within this web of global economic, political, and cultural exchanges. Moreover, in thinking about the role of movies and film is to also think about the distance between the spectacular nature of filmic imagery and the everyday lived reality of minority subjects. Furthermore, filmic imagery, especially the Hollywood film product that is the subject of this study, is often highly ideological, offering imagery and representations that both reflect and establish white hegemonic power and control. To this end, the novels of Jessica Hagedorn, Dogeaters, The Gangster of Love, and Dream Jungle serve to establish a paradigm for the relationship between film and its spectacular nature and the individual living in her quotidian reality. Thus, the various works in this study offer different ways in which individual identities are created both because of, and often in spite of, the spectacular constructions of Asians and Asian Americans. This study takes on the relationship of the spectacular and the mundane in a variety of forms and media, from those identities created in, by, and in spite of Chinatown - spectacular presentation in another form - to the more specific question of Asian American masculinity. Instead of just thinking about filmic imagery and representations in a narrow political sense, this study attempts to explore the different ways in which the spectacular, writ large, effects the different constructions