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
ecreef@wellesley.edu
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)
E.A. Dupont. “Piccadilly” (1929 )
Joseph Von Sternberg. “Shanghai
Express” (1932)
Joshua Logan. “Sayonara.” (1957)
Jack Cardiff. “My Geisha” (1962)
Richard Quine. “The World of Suzie
Wong” (1960)
Wayne Wang. “The Joy Luck Club”
(1993)
Mira Nair. “Mississippi Masala”
(1992)
Kayo Hatta. “Picture Bride” (1995)
Asian American Television: Margaret
Cho in “AllAmerican
Girl” (1994)
Hiroko Yamazaki. “Juxta” (1989)
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Pam Tom. “Two Lies” (1989)
Helen Lee. “Sally’s Beauty Spot”
(1990)
Deborah Gee. “Slaying the Dragon”
(1988)
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
Sept. 5/8
Introduction to Asian/American Women in Film
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
Oct. 10
Historical Memory & Women in the Internment Camps
Fall Break: No Class
Oct. 13
(1991)
Film (screened in class): Rea Tajiri: “History and Memory”
Week 7
Oct. 17/20
Historical Memory and Women in the Internment Camps
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
Silent Era
Oct. 24
Asian/American Masculinity: Revisiting Classics from the
Tanner Conference—no classes.
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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
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
Nov. 14/17
Asian American Feminist Short Films
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
Nov. 21
of Korean
Nov. 24
Asian American Feminist Short Films
Film (screened in class): Helen Lee: “Sally’s Beauty Spot” (1990)
(pdf)
Readings: Helen Lee: “A Peculiar Sensation: A Personal Genealogy
American Women’s Cinema” (pdf);
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
Series
Dec. 5/8
Examining Margaret Cho’s “All American Girl” (1994) Television
Week 15
History
Dec. 12
Recuperating Anna May Wong’s Place in Asian American Film
Student presentations
Film: E.A. Dupont: “Piccadilly (1929)
Readings: TBA
Final Papers due December 21 at 4:30pm in my box in Women’s
Studies Lounge
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